736 
PERTH 
of Hill-Cairney. The barracks, in the immediate vicinity 
ofthe town, likewife deferve to be mentioned among its 
ornaments. Beauties of Scotland, vol. iv. 
PERTH AMBOY'. See Amboy, vol. i. 
PER'THES, a town of France, in the department of 
the Seine and Marne: fix miles fouth-fouth-well of 
Melun. 
PER'THES, a town of France, in the department of 
the Upper Marne : fix miles north weft of St. Dizier. 
PERTH'SHIRE, a county in Scotland, having the 
fliire of Invernefs and Aberdeen on the north; Angus 
or Forfar, Fife, and Kinrofs, on the eaft; Clackmannan 
and Stirling on the fouth ; and Dunbarton and Argyle 
on the weft; contains, according to the lateft authorities, 
263S fquare miles, of which 50 are occupied by lakes; 
or, in all, 1,688,320 Englifii acres; being, next to Inver- 
nefs-lnire, the largeft county in the mainland of Scotland. 
It is fituated between 56° 7' and 56° 35' north latitude, 
and between 3 0 6' and 4 0 47' welt longitude, from Green¬ 
wich. Its greateft extent, from eaft to w'eft, is about 77 
miles, and from north to fouth 68. It was anciently, and 
is (till, popularly divided into eight diftridls : Atholl on 
the north, Stormont on the north-eall, Perth Proper and 
Gowrieon the eaft, Strathearn on the South, Monteith 
on the fouth-weft, Breadaibane on the weft, andRannoch 
on the north-weft. It is under the jurifdidtion of one 
(heriff, who has fubftitutes in the towns of Perth and 
Dumblane, and is divided into feventy-nine parifhes. 
In a general view, this extenfive county may be divi¬ 
ded into Highlands and Lowlands; the former occupy¬ 
ing a fpace fo much greater than the latter, that not quite 
fo much as a third part of the whole is fit for cultivation. 
This laft portion is chiefly, though not without confide- 
rable exceptions, fituated on the eaftern and fouthern 
extremities, which contain lome of the richeft trafils in 
Britain; and in the great plain of Strathmore which has 
the Grampians on the north-weft and the Ochils and Sid- 
law Hills on the eaft; varying in breadth from ten to fif¬ 
teen miles, and extending through this and the contigu¬ 
ous counties, from fea to fea, a diftance of 100 miles. 
To the weft, where the Grampians, at firft rifing gently, 
rear their rocky or heath-covered fummits to the height 
of 4000 feet, and for almoft the whole breadth of the 
county, the high grounds aie penetrated by ftraths and 
glens, fiome of them of confiderable extent, each traverfed 
by its own mountain-ftreams, and diverfified by nume¬ 
rous lakes, many of which, having their wild and lofty 
banks covered with natural wood, prefent fcenes iingu- 
larly romantic and beautiful. At leaft feven of thefe 
mountains are upwards of 3000 feet high : the three high- 
eft being Benlawers, on the weft fide of Loch Tay ; Ben- 
more, fouth-weft; and Schehallion, north-eaft: the latter 
noted as the ftation chofen by Dr. Mafkelyne, Aftrono- 
mer Royal, to make obfervations on the attraction of 
mountains. The molt confiderable lakes are, Loch Tay, 
almoft in the centre of the Highland diltricl, about fifteen 
miles long, and one broad, with a depth varying from fif¬ 
teen to one hundred fathoms; Loch Ericht, on the 
north-weft, extending into Invernefs-lhire, (till longer, 
but not fo broad ; Loch Rannoch, fouth-eaft of the for¬ 
mer, twelve miles long; Loch Earn, fouth from Loch 
Tay; and Lochs Vennachar, Achray, and Katrine, on 
the fouth-weft : the laft of which, with the wild moun¬ 
tain fcenery around it, has acquired deferved celebrity, 
from Sir Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake. Moll of the 
llreams either have their fource in thefe lochs, or receive, 
as they flow through them, a great acceflion to their wa¬ 
ters. The rivers are the Tay, the Forth, the Earn, the 
Teath, and the Ifla; of which the two firft are by far the 
moil confiderable, though the Forth does not attain its 
full fize till it has left this county. The Tay, the lar¬ 
geft river in Scotland, and the Earn, belong exciufively 
to Perthlhire. The Tay, under the name of the Dochart, 
has its fource on the weftern confines, and foon after en¬ 
tering Loch Dochart, flows from thence north-eaft till it 
SHIRE. 
falls into Loch Tay. After leaving Loch Tay, from 
which it now takes its name, it purfues firft a north-eaft- 
erly and then a foutherly courfe towards Dunkeld, from 
which it proceeds eallward, and then fouth, through a 
very rich country, till it falls into the Frith of that name, 
a little below the town of Perth; having been joined by 
the Almond and many other llreams in its courfe, which, 
with all its windings, is not lefs than ninety miles. The 
falmon-filhery on this river yields a rent of about 7000I. 
a-year. South of Loch Tay is Loch Earn, where the river 
of that name has its fource, and which, flowing eall and 
fouth, through Strathearn and by the town of Crieff, 
after a courfe of twenty-four miles, falls into the Frith of 
Tay at Rhind. On the banks of this river, near its con¬ 
fluence with the Tay, is the village of Pitcaithly, long ce¬ 
lebrated for its mineral fprings, which have lately found 
a rival at Dunblane, on the fouthern fide of the county. 
The climate of this extenfive diftrift, fo different in ele¬ 
vation and expofure, varies confiderably. In the central 
parts, the winters are llormy and very levere, the fnow 
lying long, attended with keen froft ; and on the banks 
of the rivers in this quarter, hoar-frolts are frequent in 
fummer, and very injurious to the crops. On the eaft, 
the climate is mild and falubrious. At Longforgan, in 
the Carfe of Gowrie, on the banks of the Frith of Tay, 
the thermometer on an average of twelve years, Hood at 
50 0 , and the mean annual quantity of rain was 24I inches; 
and at Belmont, in Strathmore, for a period of ten years, 
the average height of the thermometer was 46-35, and 
the yearly quantity of rain during thirty years’ obferya- 
tion 30-4 inches. 
Perthlhire, as far as yet known, does not abound in 
ufeful minerals. There is no coal but at Culrofs, on a 
fmall detached trail lying on the Forth, fouth-eaft from 
the reft of the county ; and, for want of coal, limeftone, 
which is found in many parts, is of little value, though 
it is fometimes imperfectly calcined by means of pear. 
Some years ago, a machine w-as ereiled for pounding 
limeftone, with the view of employing it in that Hate as 
a manure ; but the experiment was not perfifted in. In 
the higher grounds, the prevailing rock is granite, and, 
in the lower, fandftone. Slates are found in many parts 
of the Highlands, but none in the low country. Copper, 
lead, and ironftone, occur in fome parts; and mines of 
the two former were once worked, but are now aban¬ 
doned. Shell-marl, which has been long ufed as a ma¬ 
nure, abounds in Stormont and Strathearn, on the eaft 
fide of the county. The hill of Kinnoul has been long 
known as a repofitory of thofe nodules of agate and chal¬ 
cedony which are commonly called Scutch pebbles. Dr. 
Mac Culloch, w-ho has furveyed it with his ufual faga- 
city as well as with his ufual freedom from pre-conceived 
theories, traces the outlines of its lingular ftrufture, 
which is reconcileable to the conditions either of the 
Huttonian or the Neptunian hypothefis. It refults from 
his obfervations, that this ridge is principally compoled 
of trap-rocks, of which the leaft abundant is a black 
amorphous bafalt, and the moll prevalent an amygdaloid, 
which alfumes various afpefts according as it contains 
green earth, calcareous fpar, quartz, or chalcedony. 
Heliotrope, without the red fpots for which it is fo much 
prized, and a green quartz, occafionally approaching ro 
the nature of the plal'ma, have been detected in the lame 
repofitory: the portion of a bed of trap-conglomerate 
refts on the top of the mafs of trap. At the eaftern end 
of Kinnoul a fand-ftone breccia may be obferved, appa¬ 
rently lying below the trap, and fimilar to that which is 
thelowermoftof the fecondary ilrata throughout the whole 
of this diftriCl. See Tranf. of the Geological Society, 
vol. iv. part 2. 1818. 
On fo great a variety of furface, every defcription of 
foil occurs that is to be found in Scotland; and the me¬ 
thods of cultivating it mull be alfo various. In thefe 
refpefits, then, Perthlhire is naturally divided into three 
diltriCts, which differ from each other very materially. 
2 Thefe 
